“Act when the idea is hot and the emotion is strong“ Jim Rohn
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Steroid Epidurals Can Help Relieve Sciatica
A recent randomised trial published in Annals of Internal Medicine by Cohen and his colleagues shows that steroid epidurals can help relieve sciatica. They found that “75% of patients treated with epidural steroids reported 50% or greater leg pain relief and a positive global perceived effect at 1 month”. Of course, an epidural is an…
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An Integrated Approach To Low Back Pain Improves Results
An article in Medical News Today reviews a study in The Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine on the treatment of low back pain. A combined program of complementary and conventional therapies was found to be more helpful than the usual care provided by the primary care physician. The benefits of the program were a…
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The Effects Of Smoking On Musculoskeletal Health
It’s common knowledge that smoking is bad for health. In the UK, according to the NHS, 114,000 people die each year of smoking related illnesses. In the US, the figure is 443,000 and as reported by Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, smoking is the cause of one out of every five deaths. Smoking damages…
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“Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms… to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.” Viktor Frankl
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Skiing And Snowboarding Injuries
A study by Suezie Kim et al. published in The American Journal of Sports Medicine has shown that injury rates in snowboarders are slightly higher than injury rates in alpine skiers. Snowboarders more commonly injure their wrists, shoulders and ankles while skiers tend to injure their knees. In skiers the knee accounts for a third…
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Shift Work May Cause Obesity And Diabetes
An article in today’s BBC News Health discusses recent research published in Science Translational Medicine. Dr Orfeu Buxton et al. have shown that “prolonged sleep restriction with concurrent circadian disruption alters metabolism and could increase the risk of obesity and diabetes”. This has implications to people performing shift work.
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“All that we are is the result of what we have thought, What we think we become“. Siddhartha Guatama Buddha
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Have Some More Chocolate!
Easter is upon us and as usual, we’re about to indulge in fistfuls of chocolate….so I thought I’d remove the guilt by telling you about some of the potential benefits! Extensive research has shown that the cocoa in chocolate can help: improve arterial blood flow and decrease blood pressure, improve glucose and fat metabolism, and…
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Sitting And Mortality
A few days ago the Archives of Internal Medicine published the timely results of the effects of sitting on mortality rates. van der Ploeg and her colleagues followed over 220,000 Australians over a 3 year period. The subjects were 45 years or older and sadly 5405 people passed away during the course of the study….